In my younger years as an environmental advocate, my understanding friends would tease my habit of waking them up at 6 in the morning or earlier with text messages about seeds of ideas and strategies that propped up in the middle of the night or early morning.
The excitement of hearing my colleagues’ response and further discussions about them could not be easily contained.
Being on the same page with like-minded ardent partners and maximizing the benefits of technology have made organizing events to increase awareness and encourage more proactive engagements in environmental governance a breeze.
Our enthusiasm made us craft a forum and activities with stakeholders within a week or less with dedicated partners like Tony Oposa, Vince Cinches, Aaron Pedrosa, Ben Cabrido, Liza Osorio, among many others. Energy was at its zenith with hectic days of fervent preparations and engagement.
Invitations to share experiences and ideas about our state of the environment and governance were much welcome as there were so many issues then and now, affecting our much taken for granted sovereign right to a healthful and balanced ecology.
I learned more from the interactions with inspiring personalities and participants, with their pressing questions and challenges encountered on a daily basis than I ever could if I just relied on reading or accessing the internet.
These helped to a great extent in molding my views about pressing issues in governance and in realizing how wide the gap was between law and reality.
These issues range from solid waste and other forms of pollution, marine habitat destruction and displacements to climate change impacts, articulated in various platforms, whether here or other parts of the country and in international conferences as well.
The insights and learning stirred the energy to contribute and share them in journals and publications that I cannot imagine how I found the time to devote, aside from hosting a regular radio program with youth leaders, and of course, thinking of topics for my weekly column with Cebu Daily News.
The amazing journey of an advocate and civil society organizations has its rewards as well in meeting personalities and be introduced to entities which have done a lot to improve the country’s policies, strengthen institutions and help empower our citizens.
One such institution is Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Rule of Law Program Asia (KAS) under its outgoing Director, Judge Marc Spitzkatz.
KAS is aware that Environmental Law is a challenging field which requires a strong Rule of Law regime if the protection of the environment is to be sustained.
Many countries in the region including the Philippines have seen the necessity of enacting national laws to protect the natural life support systems and the inter-related environmental rights of the people.
But as we are too painfully aware, the laws’ almost nil implementation is a big hurdle to overcome.
Thus, in 2012, KAS started the Environmental Law Talks (ELT) in Vietnam with international experts discussing aspects of transnational cooperation in the field of environmental protection, focused on ASEAN and the Mekong River region.
The successful pilot program was replicated in August 2013 with the University of Cebu (UC) hosting for the Philippine event, on the theme ‘Forest Management and Mining Laws in South-east Asia’ followed by Malaysia, then Indonesia. The Philippines is privileged to have hosted as well the 2014 ELT in Cebu, with Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. as keynote speaker of the conference on Mainstreaming Environmental Justice.
Stakeholders from the Bench, the prosecutorial system, Office of the Ombudsman, local government units and government agencies, non-government organizations, people’s organizations, academia and business sector gave a very positive feedback on the enriching two-day event.
The discussions focused “on the state of the natural life support systems, and climate change impacts, to enhance the capacity of the members of the Bench and the prosecutorial arm of the government to be more motivated and effective in their role as defenders of justice…it assessed the gains obtained from the implementation of the Rules of various Environment statutes in the Philippines and to propose recommendations to strengthen them.” (https://www.kas.de/rspa/en/events/59468/)
The ELT has evolved to become a forceful platform for dialogues among experts on international environmental law. The ELT4 was recently held in Cambodia in a three-day talk about climate and environmental governance where they gathered to present their findings and challenges of the impact of environment policies on their countries.
The new publication on the Rule of Law and environmental governance was likewise launched with KAS and UC as co-publishers. It contains articles on environmental, legal and governance issues that summarize the discussions of the previous series of Environmental Law Talks.
As Professor Liza Osorio noted during the event, she and co-faculty members learned so much in the making of the book.
It is fitting to thank KAS and its much-admired outgoing Director Marc Spitzkatz, who will soon resume his position as a judge in Berlin, for the invaluable contribution through the Environmental Law Talks in helping instill a deeper recognition of the importance of the Rule of Law and stronger institutions to protect our people and our environment.
As we look forward to the directions that the incoming Director of KAS lawyer Gisela Elsner will put forward for KAS, we say to Marc Spitzkatz that we are forever grateful for the meaningful partnership with KAS under his stewardship. Mabuhay!
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